Interview with an Assassin 😳 (author!) - Welcome Rob Hart!

Author of Assassins Anonymous series joins me for a Q&A!

Hi friends,

As you know, I’ve loved writing about Nadia, my assassin-character in Somebody Worth Killing. But another author, the prolific Rob Hart, had an assassin book publish the very same day!

We thought, why not share a little about our respective books, as our readers clearly enjoy a good assassin story? Beyond that, I had so much fun reading Assassins Anonymous, the first book in his series, and I think you’ll love it, too. What happens when a killer-for-hire decides to join a 12-step program to quit killing, except it’s not that simple, especially when that world doesn’t want to let you go? I mean, even just the cover makes you want to pick it up and take it home with you! He now has three books in the series, with Three Hitmen and a Baby launching in June.

Grab his books here, and make sure you follow him here on Substack where he shares behind-the-scenes about writing, travel, and much more! Now, onto the Q&A!

What made you want to write a story about an assassin?

The assassins is a really interesting character archetype, same as the private eye or the gunslinger. They’re morally gray (leaning toward black), and live by their own sets of rules and guidelines. But we like them anyway. We’ve decided that, unless they’re portrayed as purely villainous, that there’s something noble to the profession—that they’re killing the “right” people. Take John Wick. We cheer when he shoots a bad guy in the head, but someone somewhere in the world will mourn that person’s death. Maybe they weren’t all bad. Maybe they were a criminal but also a good dad. Maybe they were just doing the best with whatever they had in front of them. No way to tell, but definitely fun territory to explore in a book.

Can you pitch your book (or maybe your series as a whole? or the first book since maybe that’s where people would start?) to me in your own words?

Assassins Anonymous is about a 12-step program for people who don’t want to kill anymore. It follows Mark, formerly the Pale Horse, once the deadliest killer in the world, who wants to change—but he isn’t sure if that’s possible. The series continues in The Medusa Protocol, which shifts the lens slightly to include another character’s POV, and now we’re on the third, Three Hitmen and a Baby. Three members of the AA group offer to watch another member’s kid, thinking that, as some of the deadliest and most proficient people in the world, they’re more than up to the task. Spoiler alert: They are not!

How is writing Mark different than writing any other character?

I’m always mindful of how Mark appears to the world around him—and to the reader. I made a decision right at the beginning for him to be very charming, and very funny. He’s a killer in a 12-step program, which means at some point, he hit a rock bottom. And I knew his rock bottom was going to be a rough one, and if the reader didn’t love him, they wouldn’t keep reading. So it’s always in the back of my head, how to keep him sympathetic.

Writing a series for me has been a very different experience than writing a standalone--what has it been like for you? What do you like/dislike? Any advice to authors who want to write a series?

I love a good series. And the Assassins Anonymous concept lends itself so well to that. I feel like I could write a dozen more of these. It’s like slipping on a comfortable pair of shoes. Though at the same time I’m itching to get back to standalones, because there’s something really satisfying about knowing you’re going to blow up the sandbox when you’re done playing inside it. As for advice: you don’t have to do this, but it’s helpful to think about how you can challenge yourself and your formula on each book, to keep things interesting. You do have to treat each entry as both a standalone, and the last book you’ll ever write. I see this as both a freelance editor and a teacher in an MFA program... people get it in their heads they want to write a 10-book series (I’m looking at you, fantasy nerds...), when the reality is, selling a series as a debut author can be hard, plus, you never know if the series is going to have the juice to continue. The market will decide that. Each book has to be its own thing, and if you’re lucky enough to write more than one, great! If not, pivot!

Why do you think we are drawn to an assassin character? What about it appeals to the average reader/human?

Assassins are often portrayed as strong and capable, and we just love a strong and capable character. Look at Reacher or Sherlock Holmes. They’re great examples of what’s called “head authority.” That’s a concept in the writing practice of minimalism, that we inherently trust characters who are smart and capable, and when we trust them, we’ll follow that character (and the author) anywhere they want to take us. (The other form of authority is heart, which means humor, honesty, and emotional vulnerability...). More than that, these characters follow their own set of rules. They speak and act in ways that we imagine we want to. It’s an escapist fantasy. A dark one, for sure, but all of us, at least once in our lives, have considered strangling another person. I feel this way several times a day while driving in New Jersey...

One piece of advice to writers out there.

Yeah, don’t listen to advice. Seriously, just because something works for me doesn’t mean it’s going to work for you. Listen to what I have to say, pick through it, sort it, take what works, discard the rest. A writing process is like a fingerprint; wholly and utterly unique to you. I’ve seen people get locked into ideas that there’s only one way to do things, and they suffer for it. There’s only one thing that matters, ever: the work gets done, or it doesn’t.

Thanks so much for sharing, Rob! You can find his books here, and bonus: he has an editorial service you can check out, too!

In other news, I had the great pleasure of writing for CrimeReads. Digging into feminism and why women can be psychopaths, too(!!!) was truly so fun and interesting. I get into why the world is finally ready for morally gray women. You can find that article here!

If you still need a signed copy of Somebody Worth Killing, Browsers Bookshop ships nation-wide and has a few copies left!

I’ll be back soon with more on mom life, feminism, books, and more! -Jessica